GUIBERT, gi"bär', OF NOGENT: Abbot of Nogent (Nogent-sous-Coucy, near Lam, 75 m.. n.e. of Paris); b. at Clermont (40 m. n. of Paris) 1053; d. at Nogent between 1121 and 1124. At the age of twelve he entered the monastery of Flay, where he received a classical and theological education, and came under the influence of Anselm, then prior of Bee. In 1104 he was made abbot of St. Mary's monastery at Nogent and remained there the rest of his life. He was first of all a moralist, and hence cultivated moralizing Scripture exposition, which seemed to him especially necessary in a time when faith was unshaken, but morals were much on the decline (De vita sua, i. 17, p. 876). He is not to be counted, however, among the enlighteners, but is rather a true child of his time, deeply sunk in its superstition. Of interest among his writings is the Liber quo ordine sermo fieri debeat which strenuously opposes the prevalent repugnance to preaching. Guibert advised placing the moral and psychological elements into the foreground of the sermon, and held that no manner of preaching was more salutary than that which presented man's own picture to his mind. The pretense of the monks of St. Medard that they had a tooth of Christ induced him to write De pignorabm aanctomm. He by no means attacks the worship of relics, but demands that one should first be convinced of the genuineness of the relics and the holiness of those from whom they come. He disapproves of the exhuming of the bodies of the saints and the dismemberment of these bodies. He denies entirely the existence of physi cal parts of Christ, since his earthly body has been completely transfigured. In the second book he defends most energetically the doctrine of transubstantiation, and- the doctrine of the necessary in tentio of the priest is here found. Guibert was also the first to write an extensive history of the first crusade-Historim qute dic£tur gesta Dei Per Francos sive historia Hierosolymitano, from 1095 to the end of 1099, written about 1108; it was founded on an earlier narrative by a crusader, which Guibert enlarged from the oral communications of others and, as he thought, improved. His statements are not always reliable, but the book as a whole is an important historical source. Guibert also wrote a kind of autobiography, Monodiarum give de vita sua libri iii. The first book only, which reaches to his election as abbot, is biographical; it is written after the plan of Augustine's "Confessions," and treats of his errors and his repentance through the divine grace. The second book contains historical material on the monastery at Nogent, relates Guibert's election, and tells monks' stories. The most interesting part is the third book, a description of the doings of the unworthy bishop Galderich of Leon and of the controversies between him and the community of Laon.

S. M. Deutsch.

Bibliography: Guibert'e works were edited, with notes, by L. d'Achdry Paris, 1861 and am reprinted thence in MPL, elvi. Consult: J. Mabillon, Annales ordinis S. Benedicti, books lx. hiv.; J. A. Fabrieius, Bibliotheca Latina media< et infimae aelatis, book vu. 382-368; Histoire littéraire de 14 France, x. 433 sqq.; H. F. Reuter,

GssehirJUs der redagibsen Aufkidrun® im iA(indalter, i. 143 sqq., Berlin, 1875; J. Michaud, BiblioWque dm voisadu, i. 122 sqq Paris, 1829; idem, Histoire des coieadea vi. 88 sqq., Paris, 1841; H. C. L. von Sybel, Gesdhichts des ervtsa Krrousaups, pp. 88, 38, Düsseldorf, 1841; T. A. Archer and C. L. Singsford, The Crusades, pp. 28 3435, 440, New York, 1895; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vi. 288, 292; Moeller, Clridian CA-W4 ii. 323-324, 332, 373; Meander, Christian Chard, iv. 124 sqq., et passim.